Image forming apparatus are used to form text and graphic images on a variety of print media including, but not limited to, paper, card stock, mylar and transparency stock. Certain image forming apparatus include a print device that consists of a scanning carriage and one or more printing elements. During an image forming operation, the scanning carriage will traverse back and forth over the surface of the print media along the scan axis. As the scanning carriage traverses back and forth, a controller causes the printing element(s) to print at positions intended to result in portions of the desired image. The print media is periodically advanced along the media axis, which is transverse to that of the movement scanning carriage, so that the image may be completed.
One example of an image forming apparatus with this type of print device is an ink jet printer. Here, one or more ink jet pens are carried by the scanning carriage. The pens often include a printhead with a plurality of ink ejecting nozzles arranged in a two-dimensional array of rows and columns that print individual ink spots (or “drops”) as the carriage scans across the media. A 600 dpi (dots-per-inch) printhead with a ½ inch swath will, for example, typically have two columns with 150 nozzles in each column. Ink drops are fired through the nozzles by an ink ejection mechanism, such as a piezo-electric or thermal ejection mechanism, to create the desired dot pattern (or “image”).
The ability to accurately track the position of the printing elements as the scanning carriage moves along the scan axis is typically important, regardless of the type of printing element that is carried by the carriage, because position data is used to more accurately control the printing process and reduce dot placement and other printing errors. A linear encoder strip and sensor arrangement are frequently used for this purpose. The encoder strip, which includes a series of graduations, is mounted in parallel with the scan axis and the sensor, such as a light source and detector, is carried by the carriage in close proximity to the encoder strip. Position information from the encoder strip and sensor arrangement is used to control actuation of the printing element and, in the case of an ink jet printer pen, the firing of individual nozzles on the pens. Position information may also be used to control carriage movement.
The accuracy of a conventional encoder strip and senor arrangement decreases as the distance between the sensor and the printing element increases because the relative positions of the printing elements and sensor do not remain constant during a printing operation. This is due to the fact that there is typically some “slop” in the bearings that support the scanning carriage and some flexure of the carriage as it moves along the scan axis. In a multi-printing element image forming apparatus, such as an ink jet printer with a plurality of pens, the distance between some of the printing elements and the sensor can be relatively large, which adversely effects the positional accuracy of those printing elements by increasing the likelihood of dot placement errors. The same problems may be encountered when relatively tall printing elements (i.e. elongated in the media axis) that print relatively tall swaths are used. Here, the distance between the sensor and certain portions of the relatively tall printing element may be large enough to result in erroneous position data for those portions and dot placement or, possibly, other printing errors.